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Claire Dougherty

Three Poems

Lucky Park

The brick is red The green grass The picnic rabbit is crying on my cheek My cat and I bleed from the ear It’s all so colorful You are a clown I’m bending backwards

 

Now We Meet Over the Phone

A light breeze runs through the house and you turn on the TV to find out where you are. Purple is setting over the mountains. Don't be purple, you’re so normally easy, though not always loving. You remember what I say when I say it loudly and I am three inches tall, sharing everything with you until the space around us diminishes and we have more of a reason to say hello. It’s the perfect website. My background image is of a fire I drove past. It was active. It’s still happening now.

 

Star Person

The town is dressed in dawn, dressed like a dog In a blue sweater. The blue sweater barks At the dawn and the people just wake up. Consider how this might look on another Species of animal. I am a deer Separated from his mother, dressed in Virginal pink because they have this idea About deer. No I’m a woman, a person And because of the moon I cannot sleep. From another room I hear my sister call me “My sister,” which sounds truer than my name And stranger. I’m a stranger in this town where The people have come to watch me answer But I need to find my mother before I forget.